1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a printing system and a method thereof. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to a printing system storing a part of printing data as an image to easily distinguish printing data upon printing the printing data stored in a printer and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a conventional printer prints printing data provided from a user terminal device, the printer temporarily stores the data during printing and automatically deletes the data after printing. Meanwhile, in general, as various documents are printed in the office or home, there are standardized documents used by plural users or documents frequently used by each user. In this case, when each user wants to print such documents, the user generates a printing command through a print window and the user terminal device drives a printer driver to process and transmit the data to the printer. Accordingly, as numbers of such documents increase, the traffic between the user terminal device and the printer driver increases and users may have to generate the printing commands of the documents one by one again. To solve this and/or other problems, a printer with a storing function is provided so that printing data of the frequently used documents are stored in the printer to be used upon reprinting.
Processing printing data in the printer with the storing function is performed as follows. If the printing data are transmitted from the user terminal device to the printer, the printing data are stored in a temporary storage of a memory of the printer. In this state, a printing part is driven to print the printing data on the paper. Conventionally, after printing is finished, the printing data are automatically deleted from the temporary storage. However, the improved printer determines whether the storing function is selected by a user before or after printing. If the storing function is selected, the printing data are stored in a permanent storage such as a hard disk drive (HDD).
The printing data stored in the permanent storage of the printer may be searched using the file name, user ID or the like in the printer, and the user may select the desired printing data among the searched printing data and print the data directly from the printer.
When a printer has the storing function installed therein, a user can immediately print printing data stored in the printer. However, as printing data stored in the printer increases, searching for the desired printing data gets more difficult. That is, conventionally, when printing data stored in the printer are searched, only the file name of the printing data or user ID is displayed. So, when the user does not know exactly the file name of the printing data, it is not easy to search for the desired printing data. In addition, when the user knows the file name, the user has to confirm the entire file name of the printing data.